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William Shatner
William Shatner is the Canadian actor famous for portraying Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the starship ''Enterprise'' in all 79 aired episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series, 21 of the 22 episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series, and the first seven ''Star Trek'' movies. He also directed and co-wrote the story for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, appeared in the archive footage of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" and his archive voiceover was also used in the final Star Trek: Enterprise episode, "These Are the Voyages...." Biography Shatner was born on in Montreal, Canada. Although born in the province of Quebec and a fluent speaker of French, he is an anglophone of Jewish ancestry. He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from McGill University in Montreal, where the Student Center was renamed 'The Shatner Center' in the 1990s in a student popular election. (A flimsy sign hangs in the lobby, but the University administration has never officially accepted the name change.) Famous for his clipped, dramatic (and often imitated) narration and dialogue delivery, Shatner has become one of the most recognizable stars in Hollywood. In a career spanning five decades, he has become a household name not only for his role as James T. Kirk, but also for playing T.J. Hooker in the series of the same name, the host of Rescue 911, and for his Emmy-winning role as legendary but senile lawyer Denny Crane in Boston Legal. He is also an accomplished writer, producer, director, and host, and at 75 years old, his career shows no sign of stopping. Shatner has three daughters: Leslie, Lisabeth, and Melanie. All are from his first marriage to Gloria Rand, whom Shatner married in 1956 but divorced in 1969, following the cancellation of Star Trek. Shatner subsequently married actress Marcy Lafferty in 1973. Shatner and Laffery remained together until their divorce in 1994. Shatner then married Nerine Kidd in 1997, but this marriage ended tragically with Kidd's death in a drowning accident in 1999. He is currently married to Elizabeth Martin, who shares Shatner's passion for horses. They live together in Los Angeles, California. In his spare time, he plays paintball and tennis and is a professional horse breeder. In this latter profession, he founded the annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show in 1990, which he continues to host. Early career Shatner began his screen acting career in Canadian films and television productions, including the role of Ranger Bob during the first year of the popular children's show Howdy Doody. One of his earliest American television appearances was a 1956 episode of The Kaiser Aluminum Hour called "Gwyneth", in which he co-starred with Joanne Linville, who played the title role. Shatner later reunited with Linville in episodes of The United States Steel Hour and The Defenders before co-starring together in the Star Trek episode "[[The Enterprise Incident|The Enterprise Incident]]". Shatner ultimately landed several guest roles on the TV series Studio One, and his first American film role as Alexi Karamazov in 1958's The Brothers Karamazov. Among his co-stars in the latter project was future TOS guest star David Opatoshu. He continued co-starring with a number of future Star Trek guest-stars in a several popular American television programs throughout the 1950s and '60s, including Playhouse 90 (with James Gregory), Kraft Television Theatre (with Richard Kiley), Outlaws (with John Anderson, John Hoyt and Ken Lynch), Naked City (with Theodore Bikel), The Dick Powell Show (with Frank Overton), The Nurses (with Stephen Brooks and Madlyn Rhue), 77 Sunset Strip (with Brian Keith), Route 66 (with Glenn Corbett and Louise Sorel), Burke's Law (with Michael Ansara and Bill Catching), The Outer Limits (with Lawrence Montaigne, James B. Sikking, and Malachi Throne), Twelve O'Clock High (with Robert Lansing, Frank Overton, and Bert Remsen), and The Big Valley (with Bill Quinn and Jason Wingreen). He even appeared along with his future co-star Leonard Nimoy in a 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. called "The Project Strigas Afair". He also appeared with George Takei (as well as Keye Luke) on Bob Hope Presents the Chrsler Theatre that same year. Other popular TV shows Shatner appeared on during this time include Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, The Fugitive, Gunsmoke, and The Virginian. He also had a recurring role as Dr. Carl Noyes on Dr. Kildare in early 1966, during which he co-starred with Bruce Hyde and Diana Muldaur – both of whom he would be reunited with on Star Trek. Most notably, however, he starred in two episodes of The Twilight Zone, including the famous Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, in which he played Bob Wilson, a man who goes insane aboard a plane after seeing a creature on the plane's wing. Shatner also continued acting in films during the 1960s. In 1961, he appeared as Captain Harrison Byers, the aide to Judge Dan Haywood, in classic Academy Award-winning drama Judgment at Nuremberg. That same year, he had the starring role as a revolutionary and controversial high school teacher in The Explosive Generation, and the following year, he starred as a bigot in the Roger Corman classic The Intruder. He then appeared as a preacher in 1964's The Outage (co-starring Paul Fix) and starred in 1965's Incubus. In 1968, while Star Trek was still in production, he starred in the dual role of brothers Johnny Moon and Notah in the western White Comanche. Shatner's first television series, the crime drama For the People, aired in 1965 but failed to gain the attention needed to keep it on the air past the initial thirteen episodes. Fortunately, however, Shatner would gain a new opportunity for stardom when, that same year, he starred as Captain James Tiberius Kirk in the second pilot for a show by Gene Roddenberry called Star Trek. After Star Trek Stardom didn't come immediately for Shatner, or the rest of the Star Trek cast, of course. Ratings for the series were low and ultimately resulted in its cancellation in 1969 after only three years. It was only through reruns that Trek gained popularity and Shatner gained television immortality. In the aftermath of Star Trek's cancellation, Shatner continued to work steadily in film and television. The year after Trek's apparent demise, Shatner starred in the made-for-TV movies Sole Survivor (which also featured a former Star Trek co-star, John Winston) and The Andersonville Trial (with John Anderson, Harry Townes, Whit Bissell, Robert Easton, Dick Miller, Kenneth Tobey, and Ian Wolfe). He also made guest appearances in such shows as The F.B.I. (with Lawrence Montaigne), The Name of the Game (with William Smithers), Storefront Lawyers (with Robert Foxworth), Mission: Impossible (reuniting with Leonard Nimoy), Barnaby Jones (with Darleen Carr, Vince Howard, and Lee Meriwether), Mannix (with Yvonne Craig and Phillip Pine), The Six Million Dollar Man (with Alan Oppenheimer), Kung Fu (with Rosemary Forsyth, Keye Luke, and France Nuyen), Petrocelli (with Glenn Corbett, Susan Howard, David Huddleston, and Susan Oliver), and Police Story (with Dean Stockwell). In 1971, he co-starred with Barry Atwater, Robert Hooks and Michael Strong in the TV movie Vanished and with Bruce Davison in the pilot movie for Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law. The following year, he was reunited with his "Miri" co-star Kim Darby in the science fiction telefilm The People. He also co-starred with Anthony Zerbe in the TV version of the Sherlock Holmes adventure The Hound of the Baskervilles. He had several more TV movie credits throughout the 1970s, including Incident on a Dark Street (1973, with Robert Pine), Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973, with Darleen Carr, France Nuyen and Paul Winfield), Indict and Convict (1974, with Susan Howard), The Tenth Level (1975, with Stephen Macht), Columbo: Fade in to Murder (1976, with his former Trek co-star Walter Koenig), The Bastard (1978, with Kim Cattrall, John Colicos, John de Lancie, James Gregory, and Alex Henteloff), Little Women (1978, also with John de Lancie), Crash (1978, co-starring Adrienne Barbeau, Ron Glass, George Murdock, and wife Marcy Lafferty), and Riel (1979, with Christopher Plummer). In 1975, Shatner became the star of another series, a western comedy called Barbary Coast. However, the series was cancelled after its first season. Afterwards, Shatner starred in two TV mini-series, both of which co-starred fellow Star Trek performers: 1977's Testimony of Two Men, with Theodore Bikel, Jeff Corey, John de Lancie, and Logan Ramsey, and How the West Was Won, with Robert Doqui, Fionnula Flanagan, Brian Keith, Ed Lauter, Ricardo Montalban, George D. Wallace, and Morgan Woodward. During this time, Shatner appeared in a three cult feature films: the very adult 1974 actioner Big Bad Mama (co-starring Dick Miller and Noble Willingham), the 1975 horror movie The Devil's Rain, and the 1977 sci-fi/horror picture Kingdom of the Spiders (co-starring wife Marcy Lafferty). Reprising Kirk By 1973, Star Trek had gained an extensive amount of popularity thanks to reruns. There was such a high demand for more Star Trek that a new animated series was put together, reuniting most of the original cast members to lend their voices to their now famous characters. The series lasted for two seasons, with Shatner voicing Captain Kirk in all but one of the 22 episodes. Although the animated series came to an end in , Trek still hadn't died; production began on a new, live-action Star Trek series. Although this new series would never be made, it resulted in the first Trek feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in . And, for the first time in ten years, Shatner was back, in the flesh, in the role that made him famous. He continued playing the Kirk character through the next six features, concluding with his character's demise in 's Star Trek Generations. Although Shatner enjoyed working on the film, he has since displayed regret at having Kirk killed off and has been looking for the opportunity to once again play the legendary Starfleet captain. Later Career Unlike many actors who have become identified to specific characters in film and television, Shatner has been able to escape typecasting and continued to find find roles outside the realm of Trek which have become just as popular. From 1982 through 1986, he starred in the title role of T.J Hooker, a hard-boiled police officer. That series also starred Star Trek: Voyager guest star Richard Herd and frequent Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star James Darren. (Shatner later reunited with Richard Herd for a 1994 episode of SeaQuest DSV). It was during the 1980s that Shatner began an acting trend that lasts to this day: making fun of himself and of his role as Captain Kirk, the popularity of which he had trouble understanding. An early example of this came with his role as Lunar Base Commander Buck Murdock in the 1982 spoof Airplane II: The Sequel, which had him poke fun at many of the quirks and mannerisms of Kirk and Star Trek in general. (Marcy Lafferty also appeared in the film, as did Bruce French). In 1986, Shatner hosted Saturday Night Live and took part in an infamous sketch in which he told Star Trek fans to "get a life". The appearance later became the subject of an autobiographical account by Shatner, chronicling his relationship with the Star Trek fandom. Outside of Star Trek, Shatner continued to act in Canadian-made films (such as 1982's Visiting Hours) and American-made TV movies (such as 1988's Broken Angel, with Roxann Dawson and Brock Peters). In 1989, Shatner became the host of the popular documentary series Rescue 911, which lasted from 1989 through 1996. It was during the 1980s that Shatner geared towards directing. In 1989, having already directed multiple episodes of T.J. Hooker, Shatner directed Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, for which he also co-wrote the story. This came as part of a deal made between him and co-star Leonard Nimoy several years earlier; Nimoy was able to direct two earlier Trek films only if Shatner was also allowed the opportunity to direct one later. The result was lukewarm, earning negative criticism and low box office proceeds. Nonetheless, Shatner was not deterred and would continue directing for television and for films he had written. Continuing his trend towards "lampooning" himself, Shatner starred as the villain in yet another spoof, National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1, in 1993. James Doohan also made a gag appearance in his beloved role of Scotty (albeit, as a 20th century police officer in charge of repairing the police station's cappuccino machine), while F. Murray Abraham, Whoopi Goldberg, and Charles Napier also had cameos. This was followed in 1998 with the popular Free Enterprise, a Star Trek-themed black comedy in which Shatner played a caricature of himself named, aptly enough, "Bill". In 1998, Shatner became the spokesperson for "priceline.com". The earliest of this company's commercials, in which Shatner strummed a guitar and spoke "songs" advertising Priceline in front of a bemused audience, gained much notoriety and earned him somewhat of a come-back in show business. He continues to perform for Priceline commericials, albeit primarily in voiceover. From 1999 through 2000, Shatner had a recurring role as "The Big Giant Head" (a.k.a. Stone Phillips) in the sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun. This role led to the actor's first Emmy nomination, that of Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, in 1999. In 2000, Shatner appeared in the popular comedy Miss Congeniality as Stan Fields, the aging host of the Miss USA Pageant. This role ultimately led to Shatner becoming the host of the real thing – the 50th Annual Miss USA Pageant – in 2001. Shatner reprised his role as Stan Fields in the 2005 sequel, Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. Shatner's popularity has also earned him cameos in such films as Showtime (in which he spoofs his T.J. Hooker character as well as himself) and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, in which he played the chancellor of the dodgeball tournament. He has also lent his voice to a number of animated films, including Osmosis Jones (2001) and Over the Hedge (2006). In 2002, Shatner wrote, directed, and co-starred in the independent science fiction film Groom Lake. Also starring in the film were fellow Trek performers Dan Gauthier and Tom Towles. That same year, Shatner and the rest of the original Trek cast (minus DeForest Kelley and James Doohan) lent their voices to their animated selves in a popular episode of Futurama called "Where No Fan Has Gone Before". In 2004, Shatner was awarded an Emmy (again for for Outstanding Guest Actor) for his portrayal of legendary attorney Denny Crane on The Practice, a role he currently reprises in the spin-off series Boston Legal. That series also stars former DS9 cast member Rene Auberjonois. Shatner won another Emmy for same role in 2005, this time as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. In 2005, Shatner received a Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actor on Boston Legal. That same year, Shatner starred in the reality mini-series, Invasion Iowa, which took place in Riverside, Iowa, the future birthplace of James T. Kirk. Shatner hosted two specials for the History Channel in 2006, Comets: Prophets of Doom and How William Shatner Changed the World. He is currently waiting for filming to begin on the third season of Boston Legal. He is also set to film a sequel to Free Enterprise, reprising his role as "Bill". Other Projects Between 1967 and 1970, both William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy recorded covers of famous songs for MCA, which were later collected in the album "Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner". Shatner is also famous (or infamous) for his rendition of the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". Following the death of Kirk in Star Trek Generations, Shatner has written (assisted by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens) a set of nine novels, chronicling the resurrection and subsequent adventures of Kirk in the 24th century. He has also written a series of novels called TekWar. These novels ultimately became the basis for a TV series and a number of telefilms, which Shatner himself directed for, starred in and served as executive producer. In 2004, he returned to his musical career with a new album, entitled "Has Been," produced by musician Ben Folds, who previously worked with Shatner on his own first solo album, "Fear of Pop". Novels: * The Ashes of Eden * The Return * Avenger * Spectre * Dark Victory * Preserver * Captain's Blood * Captain's Peril * Captain's Glory Discography: * "The Transformed Man" * "Spaced Out" * "Has Been" See also: * Get a Life! * ''Star Trek'' Memories * ''Star Trek'' Movie Memories Trivia *Shatner once bought a horse from the father-in-law of Scott Bakula, who played Captain Jonathan Archer on Star Trek: Enterprise. *Shatner suffers from tinnitus, along with Leonard Nimoy, reportedly due to a special effect explosion on the set of the Star Trek episode "Arena". *Shatner participated in the 2001 Star Trek Edition of the game show Weakest Link, along with LeVar Burton, Denise Crosby, Roxann Dawson, John de Lancie, Robert Picardo, Armin Shimerman, and Wil Wheaton. He lost, but not before showing host Anne Robinson what his Trek character was most "known" for: his way with women. External Links *WilliamShatner.com * *[http://snltranscripts.jt.org/86/86hgetalife.phtml/ Transcript of the Saturday Night Live "get a life" sketch] * - pictures, sound clips and trivia Shatner, William Shatner, William Shatner, William Shatner, William Shatner, William Shatner, William Shatner, William Shatner, William de:William Shatner es:William Shatner fr:William Shatner nl:William Shatner